‘What are we going to do?’ Rose had cried.
‘It’s her decision,’ said Harry resignedly. ‘I don’t see what else we can do.’
‘You have to do something,’ said Rose. ‘We can’t let her ruin her life.’
‘But if that’s what she wants to do . . .’
‘I will not allow this man . . . this boy,’ Rose had spat, ‘to destroy all her dreams. She wanted to go to university. She wanted to go to America. She wanted to be a journalist. She wanted to be so many things, and now she’ll be none of them.’
Harry had taken Rose into his arms. ‘You make it sound as if her life is over,’ he’d half laughed.
‘What kind of father lets his sixteen-year-old daughter throw it all away on a whim?’ said Rose.
‘I don’t know what you want me to do.’
‘She’s gone off the rails and it’s your job to pull her back in.’
Kate didn’t know what he’d done, but Lauren was never the same again.
‘Are you going to the coast for the day or are you on your way home?’ asks the lady sat opposite Kate, interrupting her thoughts. She hadn’t noticed her there before – she must have got on at the last station, when Kate was immersed in the memory.
‘I’m just going to Bournemouth for the day,’ she says, smiling politely, a little part of her hoping that it will be enough to signal the end of the conversation. If only to save Kate from having to explain what she’s doing there.
‘It’s a lovely part of the world, isn’t it?’ says the woman, nodding her head at the window. ‘I don’t know how you townies live amongst all that smoke and noise.’
‘It’s exhilarating at times,’ says Kate. ‘But then I come somewhere like this and I suddenly realize what I’m missing out on.’
The woman smiles. ‘Well, you’ve certainly got the weather for it. You’ll be seeing the south coast at its best. Are you visiting family?’
Despite knowing the question might well be asked, Kate is still caught off guard when it is.
She nods and swallows the bad taste in her mouth. ‘My sister,’ she says without even thinking. ‘It’s a surprise.’
The woman smiles kindly. ‘Oh, I’m sure she’ll be thrilled.’
I wouldn’t bet on it, thinks Kate.
24
Kate
There’s not a cloud in the sky when Kate gets off the train at Bournemouth. She stands on the platform for a moment, breathing in that unmistakeable sea air and listening to the seagulls squawking overhead.
Despite what she’s here for, there’s almost a feeling of serenity about the place, a peacefulness that you can’t find in London, no matter how hard you try.
‘Where to?’ asks the driver as she reaches the top of the taxi rank.
‘The university please, Talbot campus.’
‘I assume it’s not to study,’ he says, laughing.
He must see the perplexed look on her face as he quickly follows it up with, ‘No disrespect, love.’
Kate pulls herself up at the slight, knowing that he’s only speaking the truth, but it sometimes takes a comment like that, from someone who can only see your exterior, for reality to hit home. The campus is almost deserted, the summer vacation well underway. She spots a few students milling around, their smiles carefree, their optimism for the future almost tangible, and she realizes that she is old. She may not look a day over thirty-four – though if the truth be told, she’d rather hope that she could pass for closer to thirty – but her mind feels a hundred, scarred by the minutiae of everyday life, cynical of everyone’s motive, no longer assured that everything will work out for the best. As she looks at the nondescript building she’s about to walk into, she has a sinking feeling that the latter will never be truer.
‘Oh hi,’ she says to the first person who looks at her from across the chest-high counter. ‘My name’s Kate Walker and I’m from the Gazette. I called earlier about verifying one of your students for a job offer.’
‘Oh yes,’ says the woman, with a frown. ‘Well, I’m very sorry to have to tell you that we have no record of a Jessica Linley having studied here.’
Kate doesn’t know what she was expecting, but it isn’t this. Still, there is a frisson of anticipation working its way through her as she acknowledges what it means. It will give her no pleasure to inform Lauren that Jess isn’t who she says she is, or tell Matt that his star reporter is a liar and a fraud, but she’ll do it if it means putting an end to this ridiculous charade that’s been plaguing her family for the past month.
‘Are you absolutely sure?’ asks Kate earnestly. ‘There’s no way you could have got this wrong?’
The woman shakes her head regretfully. ‘I’ve double-checked. The only possibility would be if she attended under a different name. Is that likely?’
Kate considers it for a moment. Anything is possible, especially where Jess is concerned, it seems.
‘I don’t have another name,’ she says, rummaging in her bag. ‘But I do have a photograph. She has only just graduated . . .’
The woman looks at her with a forlorn expression, almost as if she’s taking responsibility for Jess’s duplicity herself.
‘Well, so she says,’ adds Kate. ‘You might recognize her.’
The woman looks at the photo and back at Kate. ‘I’m sorry, I don’t . . .’
‘Don’t worry, it was just a thought,’ says Kate, about to take it back.
‘I’m sorry I can’t be of more help.’
‘I recognize her,’ says the woman standing next to her, making Kate’s heart feel as if it has frozen in time. The woman takes an inordinate amount of time to lift her glasses, hanging on a beaded chain around her neck, and sit them on the end of her nose, before moving in for a closer look at the photo. ‘I couldn’t tell you her name,’ she says. ‘But I’ve definitely seen her before.’
‘Are you . . . are you sure?’ stammers Kate, feeling as
